Let It Out
by Spat915
Summary: Weiss has been taken back to Atlas, and the stress of her life is starting to pile up. At the tipping point, she starts writing to vent her frustrations. When she starts taking refuge with a family member who seems to know how she feels and what she's going through, Weiss might just find herself discovering what it really means to be a Schnee.
1. Chapter 1

"Take a break" he says. "It'll do you some good" he says. Well, what exactly makes them think they know me and what I need to do? Because I am damn sure _none_ of them can even fathom what I _really_ want to do. What I know will _really_ help me, but I am _not_ going into that here. I'm not entirely certain that he will keep his promise to not ever read this.

Okay, I suppose now is the time that I explain what I'm actually doing if, god forbid, someone should come across this writing before I destroy it.

I suppose this predicament I'm in started with the meeting I was forced to attend with Father this morning, and it just snowballed from there. I honestly should have exercised a bit more self control, but I think its something with these walls. The white marble is so… desolate, that it just seeps into your soul and starts eating away at what keeps you sane. I suppose now that I'm sitting in a private room at the leading therapist in Atlas, I'm able to detach myself from that place and realize what I did.

The meeting was with three… I can't even think _businessmen_ without being sarcastic. They were complete barbarians, with their clubs and terrified screams, but I'm getting ahead of myself. They were dressed just like anyone else dresses today. Since the fall of the CCT in Vale, everyone's been on edge and carrying some form of weapon even if they don't know how to use it. Not that I even bothered with mine… but again, I'm going too fast. I need to stretch this out a bit otherwise that stupid therapist is going to tell me to "keep going, you're doing great!"

So I walked into the meeting next to my father, and as social protocol suggests, we were the last to enter the room as employer and soon-to-be employer. I hadn't even taken my seat when three varying but equally racist greetings were made to my father who responded simply by getting to the first matter on the itinerary. If I really had to think about it, that was the first omen of a very, very, super, bad, bad, terrible day in the making.

The meeting proceeded and every second comment out of them was some sort of slander toward the faunus. I had already known that they were racists, I've dealt with others like them since my father brought me back to Atlas, but for some reason they were especially grating on my nerves. I've always dealt with these people civilly, asking them to leave their racism at the door when in my presence, but this time I just couldn't. I almost wished to have Yang making one of her strings of bad puns, regardless how annoying those times were, just to replace this constant… filth….

Moving on, I lost my temper and screamed at them. My father fell silent and if the look he gave me could kill, I'd be eight feet under in a pine box and having fun with Pyrrha in that great big party in the sky. As it was, I screamed for a total of six minutes, telling the _men_ what was wrong with their racism and that their mothers would be ashamed of them. When I was done, the comment in reply that one of them made… _that_ broke me. It snapped me like a twig and I saw red. I was so angry… and stressed, I suppose. I haven't been that angry since… since Beacon. And even then, I don't think I was _ever_ that angry with Ruby, or Yang for that matter.

My summoning still hasn't improved a great deal since Beacon, but I suppose that was lucky for the guy I hit with it. I must have looked comical throwing a punch from across the room. Except the glyph I summoned right in front of the filthy animal copied my action, sending a giant metal fist out and sending him through the impact resistant glass and into the reception area. I won't lie here even if this makes me look bad, but it felt _really good_.

After that the other two seemed to think it was a good idea to get revenge for my forceful removal of their friend from the meeting. They both had club-like weapons that were single-function bludgeoning instruments. They never stood a chance against an ex-huntress-in-training even on my worst day. I was flawless with Myrtenaster, my fairly standard multi-action-dust-rapier.

Their screams, while probably disturbing to the receptionist and the security guards that showed up a record four minutes and thirty eight seconds later, told me that I had gotten my point across… literally. God, now I'm making puns just to make this longer…. Anyway, They were cut up fairly badly and cowering in a corner screaming. The one I'd punched through the glass was still lying on the floor. I couldn't tell if I'd killed him, but I doubted I hit hard enough for that.

When the security guards asked me to come with them, I noticed that my Father was simply looking at his scroll, sitting in his chair in the ruined meeting room as if none of it concerned him. I think that was the first and most convincing thing that prodded me to come to this shrink on the suggestion of the head of security. He was just doing his job of course, but I'll have to decide whether or not I should give him a bonus. Writing about all this is something I'd never even think about myself, and to be honest again, I think it helps to let some of this stress out. But now I'm just getting off topic.

I was shuttled straight from Schnee HQ to this place. Well, I feel this is a sufficient length for this rant. So I say goodbye.


	2. Chapter 2

"One thousand words is an oddly specific word count, wouldn't you agree?"

Those words are what led me back here to this room. Supposedly, I was supposed to write about why I was here, and I did. But it wasn't good enough. I apparently sound like an emotionless robot. Well, he'd only know that if he read the paper. Which he did, even though he promised not to. And since I know you'll be reading this too, I'd like to offer a warning: Lie to me again and there will be consequences!

Now that that's out of the way, I'm not quite sure what to write about. He said "talk about where your anger came from" and I already told him the mentalities of the barbarians. But apparently I was only mad at them, they weren't the source for my anger. "Think about what has stressed you out, think back to when this feeling of anger began to smolder," he said and I can be honest when I say that these cryptic pointers on what to write about aren't helping the level of my stress or my anger one bit.

But for the moment, I suppose I could indulge these questions….

I'm finding this rather difficult. It's not that I don't know what the source of all this is, even an emotionally blind person could see clearly that this is all the aftermath of the Vytal Festival disaster. But I suppose, at least in my perspective, it may be more complicated than that….

At least I know that everything I write here is confidential, and at the very most, only one person will read this. I felt I needed to state this in writing for myself before I started as I have no intention of trying to cover what I'm thinking, even if covering up is what a Schnee does best.

But that is another topic that I'd rather not touch, so back to my "anger" and "stress".

It's really hard not to just blame everything on my mind on the Vytal Festival, but at the same time I know that the festival was just the final straw. The last feather on the nevermore, as it were. But I honestly don't believe any of it has anything to do with RWBY or anyone else at Beacon. If anything, all the companionship I found myself receiving for the first time in I can't remember how long, was the sole saving grace that kept me from breaking down when Father decided to resume playing politics with me.

You see, since I was born I've been raised to be perfect. The perfect daughter, the perfect student, fencer, pianist, singer, cook, housewife, socialite, the list goes on. My father had very little patience for failure, and with the increasingly violent White Fang attacks, that little patience was easily depleted long before my lessons were due. I… sometimes wish I hadn't had to focus so damn hard _all_ the time. But that would have only resulted in my schooling taking place in Atlas instead of Vale.

I don't regret Beacon. Even if my father felt the school was unnecessary for my future, I don't regret Beacon. It was the first _real_ decision I made for, and by, myself. Because _I_ wanted to be trained as a huntress. Maybe for prestige, maybe for honor, or maybe because I wanted to learn what Remnant was really like outside the bubble of social security I was born in. I honestly couldn't say, but I don't regret any of it. And… I still find myself wishing the Vytal Festival hadn't turned out the way it did….

There was a time when I was happy to jump through the hoops my father presented. "Sing for the investors" he'd asked, and I happily accepted. "Learn advanced economics" he'd ordered, and I happily complied. Just to see the smallest look of satisfaction on his face, but it never happened. Then, when I asked to enroll at Beacon, "Only if you can pass my test, will I allow it" were his words. The "test" he'd staged involved a grimm that could have easily killed me if I hadn't been so determined. I don't even remember the second half of the fight. All I remember is that I was desperate to win, and somehow I managed it. He'd left me without a word that day, anger written as clearly on his face as the victory was on mine. It was the last time I saw or spoke to him before he picked me up from Patch. Before he ripped me away from my team.

I… I miss my team.

There, I wrote it. For nobody but me and that psychologist to see. I miss my team.

I miss… everyone. Blake, Ren, Nora, Jaune, Neptune, and Sun. I suppose I also miss Yang, but more in the way that one misses a book. It's nice sometimes, but the rest of the time it's large, and in the way. They were all my friends even if I never said it. I… I even miss Penny, even though I thought she was rather odd, and never really put in the effort to get acquainted with her. She was more my friend through Ruby, but I still feel sad when I remember the last match in the tournament before… everything went south. But even then, I can't blame Pyrrha for what happened. I know someone interfered. I just… wish there was something that I could have done to prevent that. If there was… Pyrrha would still be here.

The rest of JNPR all said that it wasn't my fault, what happened to Pyrrha. But I can't help but feel like it was. Jaune called us to help, and we failed. We were too late. I sent Ruby up to the top of the tower and tried my best to take on the grimm that just kept coming. I wasn't near perfect and it cost Pyrrha her life.

I don't even know what to say about Ruby…. I don't even know if she's still alive.

She was in a coma when Father came to bring me back to Atlas. He wouldn't let me stay to make sure Ruby was alright. She is beneath the concern of someone like me… is what his thoughts are. But even if he says so, I wish… I just want to know if she's okay. I don't think I could stand it if something happened to her because I sent her ahead alone.

I've been wondering more and more lately whether or not I made the right choice. I think I was still in shock from everything that was happening and just started to roll with the punches when my father appeared. I didn't fight when he pulled me into his airship. I didn't fight when we flew back to Atlas where I wouldn't be able to get any news from anywhere else on Remnant. I didn't fight when he assigned new instructors to resume my education for the role of CEO.

I wish I had.

I should have never set foot on that airship. Not without making sure Ruby would be okay.

But now… I don't know if I want to find out. I… wasn't there when I needed to be. I failed my partner and I don't know if anything I can do would make up for that. I'm still a child despite everything I've done and have very little power without my name. Even then, that power belongs to my father, not to me.

He's been getting stricter with the kingdoms hanging on the edge of a new war, and I'm the only target within reach. Even now I have the building surrounded by guards. I'm the single most protected person in all of Remnant, next to my father. And I want nothing less than to escape this cage that he's imposed with the illusion of safety to sweeten the pill. Any way you see it, a cage is a cage.

I'm not permitted to go where I want without clearing it with Father, nor am I permitted to converse with anyone without permission. The security ensures that.

The part that makes me sad is that even if I wanted to, there's nothing that I would do. Atlas has nothing for me. Everything that matters is in Vale… in Patch.

It's been so long since I left that it's starting to feel like my dreams and reality are reversed. Every time I fall asleep, it feels like I'm returning home. To Beacon and my team. To friendship and freedom and fun, and so many other things that I can't even begin to describe them as they meld together into the happiest moments of my life. But every time, I end up waking from that dream. And then it feels like I'm thrust into the start of another nightmare. Another meeting with racist barbarians. Another lesson with an increasingly difficult instructor. Another sparring match with the simulator on a difficulty that's next to impossible for me to defeat alone.

I don't think I've ever admitted this to anyone, servants included, but I've started to wear makeup to cover the scars that peek out from my clothes. My aura just can't keep up with this, even if I have to. I don't have a choice.

And when I think about it, I don't mind scars. Even the one on my face that I earned from Father's "test" to attend Beacon. Scars are just evidence of something that tried to kill you, but failed. The bigger the scar, the closer it got, but it still failed.

And I have so many scars. Scars from things I'm proud of, and things I'm not so proud of. But the worst one has to be the one across my stomach that I gained when I was fifteen. I never changed in the same room as my team because I was afraid someone might ask about it. It is the largest scar I have and it is impossible not to see when I am even slightly undressed.

I think that's the one thing that is hard proof of the exact start of all this stress. I "wasn't perfect", not the way "a Schnee needs to be". And my father made sure I paid "a price appropriate to that crime". I was told that I had actually died three times during the restorative operation, and the scar was proof of how much my mistake had cost. I didn't ever dare ask to have it removed. The answer would be obvious.

I lost most of my memories from that time due to my complications, so I can't remember exactly what my mistake had been. Only a vague set of feelings attached to that section of murky memory and fragments of dialogue that I can't make any sense of. My father refused to speak of it, so there is nothing I can do to remember what I can't. Winter was already gone, so I knew asking her would yield nothing as well.

The strange thing is… I was… happy. I think. I can't exactly say, but whatever my mistake was, it was something that I was happy about. And then I was nervous and terrified. I always assumed that those were feelings from different times, but maybe they were all simultaneous, considering Ruby had shown me how both positive and negative feelings could coexist in a single moment. The only thing I can be sure of is that I feel as if a small part of my life had been taken. Nothing big enough to cause worry, yet something that I couldn't help but miss.

That was when I started to train with a rapier. I needed some sort of control over my life and that blade made me feel as if I could hone myself into its point and go precisely where I aimed it and myself. It didn't exactly help the void that I felt, but it took my mind off it. I don't know why but I felt like I desperately needed to use something to get rid of the feeling of loss I felt. And becoming a huntress definitely helped.

But I suppose this is about finished. I've surpassed two thousand words and have answered the question I was given. I ranted a little and raved in a way unbecoming of my family name, but I don't, no I can't, care. I've admitted some things I've never admitted to anyone and it feels like a little less weight is upon my shoulders as I stretch my arms. I still don't feel better, but at least everything is bearable. I might just be putting that down so I don't have to come back here, but I won't be too concerned if I do. At least here I don't have to deal with my father or his expectations, even if I know once I leave, I go back to another round of lessons and meetings and social gatherings for those who live above the consequences of their actions. But that's something I could go on about forever. Let's see if this is long enough now.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:**

 **For anyone who is interested, I've decided to change this from a very short story (writing practice) into a very short starting point to a new crossover story I started during NaNoWriMo. I'll fill in more details in the final chapter, so for now: please enjoy!**

* * *

Dear… who am I kidding, this is more or less a memo to myself. I'm not writing to anyone, and I'm making sure to lock this in my personal safe at all times that I'm not carrying it on my person. But I suppose this isn't the best way to start this… diary, so let's just forget about that and move on.

Two days ago, I was in a meeting where I lost my temper. Afterward, I was escorted to a psychologist who had me write out what was, I suppose, a sort of confession letter about the incident. He made me do this twice. The first time about the actual incident, and the second about what incited it. Maybe in the spur of the moment, I had been a little too liberal with my honesty, but nothing ill had come of it. He'd even just barely glanced at the second letter before handing it back to me along with the first one. We sat and talked for another few minutes in which he sent an app to my scroll and instructed me to start keeping a diary to help my stress levels.

So yesterday, I picked up this small book from a store we were passing through on the way to a meeting. I'm fairly certain I overpaid for this since I'd just shown the cashier what the item was before dropping a thousand lien note on the counter and walking quickly away to catch up to my father who was leading a small group of people to the manager's office for the presentation of the yearly sales projections and trends forecast.

The reason I chose this book was because of it's size. It is the perfect size to fit in the pouch on my waist, and still have room for about six or seven more vials of the dust that I normally keep there. I'm not sure why I considered that the second I laid eyes upon it, but I suppose it may come in handy to keep it on my person if I find myself traveling in the future. For now I suppose leaving it in my safe is the best option.

It's cover is… cardboard, I believe. Or pressed paper, or something of that sort. It's made in the way most hard cover books are made for the mass market. It is a deep ruby red, with a smattering of small pink hearts that seem to be popular on these sorts of things, adding a girlish flare that I don't entirely dislike. In the middle is a small, unnecessary, and certainly fake gemstone glued on the front. I debated whether or not to remove it, but decided to leave it in the end. In a strange way, it reminds me of… well… her weapon.

Anyway, off _that_ topic. I tried yesterday to open this, but I couldn't find anything I wanted to say. Today, I opened the app that the psychologist gave me and found out it was a randomizer that gave suggestions of what to write about. It gave me three suggestions and told me to use them as a prompt for today and to check them off if I ever used them. I suppose I could use them, but it feels a bit awkward taking direction from a piece of automated machinery. I suppose it's not much different than pouring my heart out to some inanimate object, so in that regard I feel that it won't be the most ridiculous thing I've done today, and if I'm honest, I really did feel better after I wrote those two letters at the psychiatrist's. They're folded and secured to the inside cover of this book so I guess this isn't truly my first entry, but I want to treat it as one.

Because right now, I'm sitting at home, in my room, at my desk, with the door locked and the do not disturb sign hanging from the handle. I even turned my scroll to silent mode and have placed it in the desk drawer so I won't see it while I write. At least, that's what I did with what I personally refer to as my "Atlas scroll". The scroll I currently have sitting on my desk, with the new app installed is my "Beacon scroll" the topic I'm writing about today is "family interactions that surprised you" but it might as well be "what happened today". I had been wise enough to claim that my scroll had been lost in the Vytal incident, and Father was _more than willing to get his perfect daughter_ the new, top-of-the-line model that all my "friends" have been clamoring over. At least I was able to compartmentalize this… life… away from my time at Beacon. I didn't want my time there to be sullied by the pressure of being back here.

No matter how much I write, I'll never be able to understand how text becomes so… literal. Friends are friends. Enemies are enemies. Funny things are funny. Literal. But my "friends" are just people I have the misfortune to be forced to spend time with. "Enemies" are just the faces of business opposition, and funny things that are supposed to be strange and sometimes incomprehensible or esoteric in nature to those uninvolved, are actually stories that make Professor Port seem like the most exciting person on Remnant.

I realize I've been bouncing around a lot already, but I suppose it doesn't help that it is almost eleven in the evening and I had been up at six this morning to attend an early meeting before going from location to location to see the various sectors of Schnee Dust give presentations about the future of the company for the next quarter. I even had a sparring session with that dreaded simulator after dinner at the request of Father dearest.

That was sarcastic. I actually broke my left arm this time. I still won, but I did not have a good time in the last minute of the fight. Father seemed disappointed when he left the room afterward, but I don't care. He's disappointed that I won.

I didn't want to write this in the previous letters since I was afraid this would somehow get out since I am technically still a minor and it would be considered child abuse. Hell, it is child abuse, but what's that matter to the man who could buy an entire jury without even putting a small dent in his pocket book? In the end it would just hurt me more than anything. It's better to keep my mouth shut and just deal with it and bide my time, but I feel I have to put it here for the sake of my own sanity.

My father is trying to hurt me. He masks it as "training", but I know what it really is. He wants to stamp the thought of becoming a huntress out of me, and it's as clear to me as it is to him that the best way to do that is to give me a permanent injury to my dominant arm that I use to wield Myrtenaster. The cuts and scrapes I mentioned before, all belong on my left arm. Where the drone barely missed, where my aura barely took the hit, where my strength or speed was lacking by the slightest amount. So far, I've been lucky but I doubt it will last long. I needed to get an aura shot from the live-in nurse that takes care of my grandfather. He looked so terrified when I'd asked, I knew that my father had threatened him not to help me in any way.

As it happened, my grandfather had also requested a visit, so I had accompanied the nurse during grandfather's last round of pills for the night. I haven't ever been close with the man, but it surprised me how upset he was about my broken arm. I received an aura shot not a minute later as even in his old age, my grandfather is still one of the most terrifying people I know of. It's how his pills have changed his eyes, I think. There's a look in them that says that just maybe, something… human is missing. It's the look in my father's eyes when he looks at me, but he doesn't take any medication. At least, I've never seen him take any. But somehow, I felt safer with my grandfather there.

I talked to him after the nurse left. Really talked. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I held a real conversation. He's a nice man, and he seemed to take a genuine interest in my day-to-day. Especially in anything that included things such as travel or the fight I'd had. I asked him about the longsword that was hung on his wall across from his bed and he told me the story about how he'd become a hunter before saving my late grandmother. It had been a time of turmoil with the faunus civil war nearing its climax, and the Schnee's were targets since the company was a weapons producer at the time that provided for humans. Of course, her grandfather had also been accused of the war crime of providing weapons to the faunus as well, but there wasn't enough proof to prosecute. The story went on for a while, full of the usual politics but it was… fun to hear it firsthand from someone who fought for both sides in that conflict and then sired the most influential family on Remnant. Of course, he never really had an interest in expanding the company, but due to the issue of gender, he'd been forced to run it as the puppet of his wife who had been much more business oriented. He told me he didn't mind, and that those were the happiest adventures in his life.

I don't think I've ever felt like I belonged in my family, but right then I felt like I was wrong about that. Somewhere in the long genealogy I'd been forced to study, especially before my grandfather's company made us what we are today, there'd been other Schnee's like myself who wanted no part in the companies or whatever occupation their parents held, and only wanted to… do something better.

He'd complained to me about his being bedridden, and how he wished he'd be able to see the outside world again. My father refused to buy him a simple wheelchair, so he was restricted to his bed. I don't know if it was the right decision, but I made him a promise that I would get him outside before he died. He'd been making jokes about how he'd just drop dead the entire visit, so I'd incorporated it into the promise for fun. I think he was proud of me, even if he kept his expression neutral like my father always did. The tell was the smile lines around his eyes as he resumed reminiscing about the "olden days".

That's why I'm here so late, writing. I had only intended to stay for a few minutes during his eight-o-clock pill time, but ended up staying until he started yawning at ten thirty. He made me promise to visit again soon and I'd happily accepted. He promised to give me some ammunition against my father and I couldn't help but think that he didn't need to use that bargaining tool. But I couldn't help but feel that it would be nice to get out of these sparring sessions and let my aura recharge itself for once.

It was a long time since I legitimately smiled. The last time I did was at Beacon, at Ruby. I remember it clearly since Ruby had passed a test that I'd helped her study for with one of the top marks in the class. Everyone had been impressed, but I think I'd been happy that I'd been living up to the role of the best teammate that I'd promised to be.

Now I'm going to stop writing since I don't want to write about everything again. It's too late and I'm far too tired to stay composed for that. Even now, just barely touching on everything I feel as if my throat has dried and someone is clenching their fist around my windpipe. Maybe it's because I've been reliving it more lately, but it gets more and more physically painful every time it comes to mind. Especially when Ruby's involved.

But I'm not going to question _that_ tonight, I'm just going to go for a shower, brush my teeth, and go to sleep. I have another early meeting tomorrow, but thankfully it'll be a generally laid back day since I managed to schedule the rest of it off. Not that it means much, my father may just go ahead and change my plans without my say so, but at least I've tried. Goodnight.


	4. Chapter 4

Today was… eventful.

That is the only word I can use to describe it. I think I'm still in shock from parts of it, but maybe writing about it will help.

Father was… less than happy that I'd planned to take a break today. He'd originally planned for me to meet with a suitor from another prominent dust chain. He was furious when he found out that I'd gone around him and cancelled. I think it was the fact that I wasn't letting him puppet me as he often does. We had a shouting match over breakfast when his schedule was updated. It ended when he called me an idiot for going to Beacon instead of Atlas Academy. He said he'd be signing me up to start there next week.

Personally, I don't want to think about next week right now, but I'll write about the plan so I can get it out of my head and move on to more important things.

Father said I'd be leading a team at the academy. Of course, I wouldn't be required to go on actual missions because I'd be in an officer position. This would let me tend to the company instead. With the way he's constantly going on about the company, you'd think it would put itself out of business if left alone for an hour.

I… didn't let him see me cry. Vale fell a few months ago, but I can't write Beacon off. The memories are still far too fresh. My team was my family. No, they are my family. I can't write them off like that, even if we're separated now. I just have this feeling that if I do, nothing will be the same. Plus, I'm not meant to lead a team. Ozpin knew that, and looking back I can't deny that he was right. It showed after Ruby… fought that dragon. I couldn't keep Blake from leaving, or Yang from closing in on herself. I couldn't even stop myself from leaving. How am I supposed to lead a team if I can't even lead myself?

So I've decided that I will not set foot within Atlas Academy. Not unless it's as part of a team I want to be part of. And that means I won't be a leader.

I'm sure father won't be happy with that decision, but I need to start doing some things for myself. The first of which I did earlier today after father left for his meetings.

I took my grandfather to the city today while my father was out on business. It's surprising how my rapier and a stern frown makes the guards move out of my way despite what their instructions might have been.

I used my glyphs to help my grandfather move to the car and a second time into the shop I had taken him to. He seemed shocked at the sudden impulsiveness to the outing, but I could tell he was just happy to get out of the house, or rather, out of the fancy prison in his words. Not that he appreciated having to rely on me to do it. In the beginning he flat out refused to come until I told him that I'd freeze him into a block of ice with dust if he refused, and take him anyway. I think that he wasn't too impressed with me but he was much happier once he realized where I instructed our driver Tom to stop.

It turns out that my grandfather knows the man who runs the medical supply shop I took him to. And not just as an acquaintance. The two spent almost two hours telling me about the crazy stuff they went through together during the faunus war before they realized I'd brought my grandfather for more than just a visit. Once he was in a powered wheelchair (which I paid for with my personal savings to avoid my father's detection), we went for a walk around the city.

I always knew that there was a lot that I didn't know about Atlas, but I had no idea how much I'd learn from just walking with my grandfather. Underground tunnels, bunkers, and strongholds all hidden in plain sight beneath the simple architecture of stores, malls, and mass housing. The city, it seemed was a veritable fortress against every imaginable threat, and that didn't even take into account the much more modern military installations that bordered the perimeter wall.

It scared me how quickly I devised a plan to run away from here, but I knew that it would be impossible to outrun my father's influence before he would catch up with me. Proof of that was the guards that followed us around, never letting us out of their sight. But at least I have something new to research as the tunnels seem even more extensive than even grandfather knows.

But the main highlight of the afternoon had to be when we passed my father who was walking from his car into a store. The look on his face was definitely worth every trouble I had endured to get my grandfather out of the house. The only thing more I could have asked for was that he would have chosen to ignore us. Unfortunately, he seemed to be with the suitor he'd wanted me to meet and in no uncertain terms forced both of us to accompany them for lunch.

Afterwards, I think my grandfather was in a worse mood than I was, and that is saying something, seeing as I was debating how much trouble I'd get into for slitting that suitor's throat with Myrtenaster. Luckily, grandfather saved me the trouble. He actually threatened the suitor when he attempted to lay his filthy lips on me before leaving. It was both colourful and more creative than Yang's best puns. Father, of course, was livid.

I on the other hand, was overjoyed. It took so long, but finally I have someone other than Winter on my side. I felt as if… no… I _feel_ as if I can do anything now. I know it seems silly, but I always feel as if I'm constantly making mistakes in everything I do, but now I see that my father is asking for perfection. Something that has never been possible. I'm not a political mastermind, I'm not a heartless business tycoon. I'm a teenage girl, a huntress. Someone who cares for people and just wants to be accepted for her abilities and talents. For her resolve to do what's right. And my grandfather seems to understand that. He knows who I am and to an extent, what I want.

He actually shouted at my father for letting the suitor within ten yards of me. He called him a "sleazy slime-ball" among other things I'd prefer not to repeat here. That memory won't be going anywhere soon. And he did that in the middle of the restaurant with all eyes on the loud exchange. It was as if social decorum meant nothing to the man, and I couldn't help but feel satisfied that my father had been put in his place publicly. But in the end, I was the one who suffered because of it.

The two of us continued going around the city after lunch, but something was different. It was as if grandfather had deflated into a mere shell of the man I'd been starting to know. I tried asking him what was wrong but he wouldn't say anything, instead focusing on my life and what I wanted to do with my future. We talked for a long time until it was getting dark and then we headed back to White Castle. I helped him to his room, using my glyphs as an escalator on the staircase, and he left me at the door when the nurse came along to bring him his pills. He said goodbye to me then.

Not the goodbye that means you'll see that person on the morrow, the type of goodbye that fills you with a sense of dread and loss. He told me how proud he was of me, and to never give up my dreams. He told me to be careful around my father and to remember what was really important in life as it seemed the rest of the family had forgotten. He said he was happy that I'd spent the last few days with him, but told me that I shouldn't have wasted my time with him. But he still thanked me as if I'd given him the best gift in the world.

I didn't have much time to consider what he meant by all that though, as my father summoned me to the training grounds almost immediately afterwards. I had expected something like that, but I wasn't prepared for what happened.

He wanted to duel me.

He saw that the simulator wasn't achieving his goal, so he decided to take matters into his own hands.

I felt like he wanted to kill me. But at least he gave me time to prepare, because that's when something I wasn't expecting happened.

I could tell from the anger on his face he meant business, so I tried to summon that knight. For whatever reason, I must have been concentrating properly because for the first time ever, it worked. Not that it lasted long, it took him less than three hits to destroy it before he summoned his own creatures.

He summoned creatures I recognized and those I didn't with his glyphs, giving them various elements with his dust. I attempted to counter them, but in the middle of battle, I could only summon the arm of that knight again. It didn't last long either. I think the whole fight lasted five minutes, as his creatures and their inherent elements were only too simple for me to counter with Myrtenaster. The problem was, that once his summons were defeated, and I was already weakened from the fight, he joined in with his own rapier.

I originally thought fighting at Beacon was difficult, that fighting in the Vytal festival was hard. But fighting my father is like fighting a wall. I didn't land a single hit on him and he ended up breaking five of my ribs, tearing a deep cut into my left arm and an equally deep hole in the same shoulder. And then, even after all the damage he'd done, he threw me across the room and through the wall that separated that training room from the next.

I'm not entirely sure what happened after that as everything seems to have blurred together, but I woke in my bed with my chest and my right arm in a cast. My left has been bandaged and moving my head too quickly makes me feel sick. One of my legs feels like it's been badly bruised as well. And my father had the audacity, after causing all these injuries, to come by and ask me if I still wanted to be a huntress. I told him I'd have to think more about it in order to buy time. If I say that I still want to become a huntress, I'm sure he'll pull me back into a sparring room whether I'm injured or not. But I am going to become a huntress, whether he likes it or not. All I need to do is recover my aura enough to repair my leg and arm, and possibly a few ribs before I do what I know I need to. Grandfather was right in telling me that I need to be careful around my father. I'm not safe with him, and unless I bend to his every whim, I never will be.

And that leads me to the last thing that happened right when I was about to start writing here. The one thing that made everything balance out, and left me in a decidedly good mood. I check my Beacon scroll to find out what I should write about before I ever start writing. Not that I always follow the prompts, but at least it sometimes helps me focus. Today wasn't one of those days, as I never got to open the app. I was completely distracted by the reading on my team roster which had up until recently been greyed out with warnings about proximity.

With the CCT in Vale down, all communications are simply local to the kingdoms. So it was a big surprise when I saw that Ruby's aura gauge was green, even if it still had a proximity warning. It meant Ruby was close, not necessarily in the kingdom, but close. I couldn't resist the urge to call her.

The conversation was exceedingly short since Ruby's reception was terrible, but I was able to instruct her to meet me in the city tomorrow. I know it seems selfish of me to take her away from whatever she was doing, but I really need a friend right now. With Winter on deployment, and grandfather being even more powerless than myself in terms of my father, I need someone who looks at me as a person and who was never afraid of doing the right thing. Ruby's always been special that way. She was my friend because she wanted to know me, not because of my money or my status. And at Beacon she was always going on about becoming heroes and saving the people. And right now, I really need that. Not the actual saving, but the optimism.

I sent a text with details to a hotel that wasn't overly luxurious as I knew she had always been averse to the "fanciness" that I've had forced down my throat while growing up. I instructed the hotel to give her whatever she wanted and to charge my private savings. It would have been stupid of Ruby to journey across Remnant alone, so I assumed she at least had her father or uncle with her. Yang's gauge was still grey, after all.

I think I'm still in shock at seeing Ruby's green aura readout on my scroll. I don't think I truly realized how desperate I was to find out if she was okay. I think I was actually crying when the static of her voice came through the speaker. And it didn't help that at that very moment, I realized something that my grandfather had told me about my grandmother was happening to me.

He'd told me that no matter how bad a day he might have had, as soon as he heard my grandmother say his name he knew everything would be okay. That his bad day was almost immediately forgotten in the happiness of hearing her sweet voice. I never knew my grandmother, and I'd thought he'd been exaggerating. But what happened when Ruby answered, even with her voice marred by the static of a bad connection, made me realize exactly how much she might just mean to me.

I'm not exactly sure if I feel safe in saying anything right now, but I can say I've never felt like this toward anyone in my entire life. It's… terrifying. Ruby's voice washed away all the negative feelings from today and left me with a feeling of excitement as I anticipate our meeting tomorrow. It's been so long since I heard her voice and saw her face that I'm almost afraid of what I'll find. But even so, I feel as if tomorrow will be one of the best days I'll have since before everything happened.


	5. Chapter 5

Today isn't as good a day as I'd predicted. In fact, it may even make the top five worst days since my father took me from Ruby's bedside all those months ago. You can tell it's a bad day because I'm writing this at shortly after ten in the morning.

Right now, I'm laying stretched across Ruby's lap on a couch in one of the disused living rooms that White Castle has. Nobody knows where we are and I'm happy about that because I don't want to deal with people right now. Ruby seems to be the exception. She's even playing with my hair - something I usually would get angry with her for. However, this time I seem to be enjoying it. But I suppose I need to go back to what happened this morning to make this entry make sense.

It's hard to write this, especially because everything is still so fresh, but… Grandfather passed away late last night. It turns out his illness was much closer to running its course than I'd thought it was. And his goodbye yesterday told me that he knew as well. I don't know how I'm supposed to feel. Happy that he doesn't have to suffer anymore, sad that he isn't here anymore, lonely that he was there for me for only a short time, depressed at how everyone in my life that I care about keeps leaving, angry that he didn't tell me himself, or resigned that he's gone and never coming back. I know I should feel… something, but I don't feel any of it. Nothing at all. If anything, I just feel numb.

Except numb isn't the right word. I feel… so much that I can't tell what I'm feeling. So much that I don't know the difference between indifference and emotion anymore. I can't even remember what happened today other than going to poke my head in before I left to meet Ruby and finding my father speaking of funeral arrangements for later today with the nurse. Neither stopped me from going into the room where grandfather still lay as if asleep. I touched his hand and it was so cold it was as if it were made of the ice that surrounds Atlas. I ran out of the room, ignoring maybe the first truly concerned shout I've ever heard from my father. I kept running all the way to Atlas, even after I noticed my father following slowly in a car.

I know he was angry that I appeared so weak, he must have been. But when I saw Ruby heading to our meeting point, I couldn't help but tackle her in a hug as the tears finally hit me. I think we stood in the middle of the sidewalk for almost half an hour before Ruby was able to help me relax as she rubbed my back gently. My father didn't speak when she opened his door and instructed his driver to take them all back to White Castle.

I just clung to Ruby the entire time as Father looked down at me with contempt. At least he didn't say anything to us.

I led Ruby to this room after telling the servants to leave us alone and Ruby pulled me onto the couch and lay me down to rest while she silently watched over me. I don't know what I did to deserve this treatment after I left her in Patch, but I know how much it means that she wants to be here for me.

I'm not sure if she's reading what I'm writing, but I'm not too concerned. I… I trust her. I trust her so much that it honestly scares me when I think about it. And I am going to tell her how I feel… or at least some of what I know for sure. I don't want to jump the gun on this, Ruby's too important to me. But if I don't, I can't see this friendship working out between us since even now the silence feels awkward, though I expect that's my fault for crying so much. She's never seen me like this before but I'm happy she was here when I needed her. I know she's two years younger but in all honesty, I feel as if my maturity is lacking due to my sheltered life. Ruby has always had friends and family that care about her. She has so much more life experience than I do. All I've had was Winter for a few short years and now a grandfather for a week. But they've both left me alone, and Ruby came back. Even though I was the one that left, Ruby came back and I can't be more happy that she did. Even if the circumstances aren't great, I need to let her know how much it means that she's here now.

So, I think this will be the last entry I'll have for a while. It's time for me to stop hiding and be the person my grandfather saw in me. The person I know I am. And that means that for the first time in as long as I can remember, I'll have to let it out, and tell Ruby everything. I truly hope she understands how sorry I am, and how much I want to help her with whatever quest she's on. She needs to know that I want to be her partner again. Maybe, I'll even tag along. There's nothing left for me here anymore except stress, abuse, and loneliness.

Yes… I believe it's time I did what I want to do. Not what I'm told to do.

It's time I stop trying to keep my future open to two paths. From now, I am a full time huntress.

* * *

One last thing, Father.

I know you'll have read this, as I'm leaving this on your desk.

I wanted you to know that I… even after everything you've done to me, I still love you. You're still my father, and I hope that maybe one day you'll be able to be proud of me and respect me for who I am, and who I've yet to become. All my life you've attempted to mold me into your ideal daughter, but I can't be that girl anymore. I'm not sure I ever could. Grandfather told me when I took him out yesterday that I received my willpower from you, maybe he's right. I will definitely need it going forward because I will not be returning to White Castle soon, and I am unsure if I ever will. So this is my goodbye to you and our family as by the time you'll have read this, I'll be far from Atlas, and you will not find me no matter how many people you send to search. I would ask you not to waste your money on that specific task, though I expect that attempting to find me may not even occur to you. So instead, I'll write the words you will take an interest in: I no longer wish to be heiress to the Schnee Dust Company and forfeit all privileges associated with said role.

Now as I come to the end, I think I could write all manner of pretty words for you, but I wont. You don't respect me enough to listen even if I do take the time to write them down. I can only hope that if one day I come to call, that you'll speak with me. As a father to his daughter, not as a master to his servant.

So until then, I wish you peace and good health.

Your youngest daughter,

Weiss Schnee

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **If you'd like to see the next installment, here's the link:** **s/12822326/1/Something-New  
**


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